ActionAid is a global movement of people working together to further human rights and defeat poverty for all.

Haiti utility

What we do

Women in Politics

We lobby the government and others for changes to the policies and practices that affect most vulnerable people’s lives.

Our regular program is carried out in the following development areas (DA’s): Acul de Nord, Thiotte, Lascahobas, Jeremie, Port-au-Prince, Hinche and Vallue. Right to food, women's rights, right to a free & quality education for all, right to human security, and right to a just & democratic governance are the main programmatic activities in these DA’s.

Since 2003 we’ve been supporting 12 community centers in marginal urban areas of Port-au-Prince. In Thiotte Haiti’s southeast, with our partner CROSE collaboration, we built 4 community schools in response to the damage done in the Mapou area by the flooding in 2004. We promote education in all of our development areas through materials and equipment support, community schoolbook cooperatives and campaign work aiming to make sure that the state guarantees the right to a free and quality education for all.

We promote the right to food security through activities targeting increased agricultural production, people’s income, livestock, access to water, irrigation, crop diversification, soil and water conservation. We promote economic alternatives such as coffee commercialization, women’s micro-enterprises and food transformation. We also aim to raise citizen’s awareness through advocacy and campaign work.

A human rights based approach emphasizes the participation of citizens and the ability of the poor and excluded to claim rights, make decisions and hold institutions to account. We believe that these are the foundations for deepening democratic processes where people can shape the state. Our actions support participatory democracy, the decentralization process and the monitoring of the implementation of public policies.

Our approach focuses on the rights of individuals and communities to human security in conflicts and emergencies. We work at reducing communities vulnerability, while reinforcing or developing their capacities to protect themselves against disasters, as well as getting the state to take appropriate measures and invest accordingly, to reduce the damages that disasters can cause.

We fight for women’s rights because the majority of the world’s poor are women and girls. Haiti is not an exception to this rule. Activities is this area include; campaigning against violence against women and HIV, challenging structural barriers to girls in education, gender training for community based organizations, activities promoting women’s access to and control over productive resources, economic initiatives targeting women as well as networking between women’s groups.